CHL Mississippi RiverKings

RiverKings Preview - Mississippi Vs. Bossier-Shreveport

Published on November 12, 2009 under Central Hockey League (CHL)
Mississippi RiverKings News Release


The Mississippi RiverKings meet the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs for the second time this regular season in Southaven. Overall, Mississippi has a record of 6-6-0 and stands in second place of the Northern Conference standings with 12 points. The game will be home game number eight for the RiverKings, who bring a 3-4-0 home mark into tonight's contest. The RiverKings are 3-2-0 in road contests this year.

Bossier-Shreveport enters the game with an overall record of 4-5-0 for eight points and fifth place in the CHL Northern Conference standings. This evening's game is road game number five for the Mudbugs, who come in with a record of 4-0-0 in their previous four appearances away from the CenturyTel Center.

The last RiverKings' win against Bossier-Shreveport in Southaven came last season on March 14th in a 3-2 shootout conquest.

RIVERKINGS LAST GAME:

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

TULSA 6, RIVERKINGS 5

Tulsa's Troy Riddle assisted on four goals, Rob Hisey had a three-point night (goal, two assists) and T.J. Caig and Dan Riedel each scored two goals in the Oilers' 6-5 victory over the RiverKings in Southaven on Tuesday, November 10th. Matt Pierce had a three-point night (goal, two assists) and Ryan Held scored a pair of red-lighters for the RiverKings. The RiverKings held a 3-2 lead after one period of play before Tulsa reeled off three goals in the second period for 5-3 advantage after forty minutes. Pierce's goal in the third period's first minute of play got the RiverKings back within a goal at 5-4, but Riedel scored the eventual game-winning goal about four and a half minutes into the final period. Held's second goal of the night came with an extra attacker with 1:27 remaining, but the RiverKings couldn't push through the tying goal. Ray Jean (6-4-0) took the loss in goal for the RiverKings with a 20-save performance. Mississippi was 1-for-4 on the power play and outshot the Oilers by a 41-26 margin.

RIVERKINGS NEXT FIVE GAMES

Saturday, November 14th at Tulsa (7:35 PM)

The 11-game regular season series against the Oilers continues for the first time in Tulsa. This will be the fourth meeting of the season with the RiverKings and Oilers in the season series that Tulsa now leads 2-1-0. The last Tulsa victory at home against the RiverKings came back on January 17th in a 3-2 shootout win at the BOK Center. The last Mississippi victory in Tulsa came on March 18th in a 6-4 victory.

Thursday, November 19th at Bossier-Shreveport (7:05 PM) and Friday, November 20th vs. Bossier-Shreveport (7:05 PM)

Thursday will be the third game of the season series against the Mudbugs and the RiverKings' first visit to Louisiana. They'll complete the home-and-home set in Southaven the following night, November 20th at 7:05 in game four of the ten-game season series. The last Mississippi victory in Bossier City came last March 7th in a 6-2 win.

Saturday, November 21st vs. Missouri (7:05 PM)

This will be the first-ever meeting between the RiverKings and the Independence-based Mavericks. Eleven games will be played between the RiverKings and Mavericks during the regular season. Mississippi will play host to Missouri six times at home and make five visits to the Mid-South. The first trip of the RiverKings to Missouri will be a two-game series at the Independence Events Center on January 15th and 16th.

Wednesday, November 25th at Allen (7:35 PM)

This will be the first-ever meeting between the Americans and RiverKings and the first ever game between the teams in Allen, Texas. The two teams will meet seven times during the course of the season, four in Allen and three in Southaven. Allen's first trip to Mississippi will come on January 9th.

SPECIAL TEAMS REPORT

In Tuesday's loss to Tulsa, the RiverKings scored once in four power play opportunities, while allowing three goals in seven Tulsa chances. Mississippi also got a shorthanded goal from Cam Severson in the game. The RiverKings' power play goal was the first scored in four games (1-for-24 in those four games), while the RiverKings allowed three power play goals in a game for the third time this season. For the season, the RiverKings are ranked tenth in the Central Hockey League on the power play at 14.10% (11-of-78) and are ranked eighth in the CHL on the penalty kill at 83.12% (13-of-77). Mississippi has scored three shorthanded goals and has allowed one.

BOSSIER-SHREVEPORT PREVIEW

The Mudbugs enter Friday's game with a record of 4-5-0 through nine games of the regular season. Bossier-Shreveport is perfect in five road games this year, but is 0-4-0 in home games at the CenturyTel Center in Bossier City. Joe Zappala is the scoring leader for Bossier-Shreveport entering the week with four goals and eight points. Simon Mangos leads the team in assists with six and Neil Clark has the most penalty minutes with 30. John DeCaro has played in six of the Mudbugs' nine games this season in goal, earning a 4-2-0 record, a 3.12 goals-against-average, and a save percentage of.902.

RIVERKINGS VS. BOSSIER-SHREVEPORT

Bossier-Shreveport won the only previous meeting between the teams by a score of 2-1 on Halloween afternoon, October 31st. Louis Dumont scored the only RiverKings' goal of the contest and Ray Jean took the loss in goal, stopping 33 of 35 shots on goal.

HELD KEEPS SCORING LEADERSHIP

RiverKings' forward Ryan Held has moved into a tie for sixth place in points for the season in the CHL with 15 and is tied with Amarillo's Joe Guenther. Held is second in the CHL for goals scored with ten through 12 games of the regular season. The London, Ontario native is also first in the league for shots on goal with 49. He scored a hat-trick in the team's second game of the season at Wichita on October 17th and scored two power play goals one week later on October 24th at Texas. Held is currently on a two-game goal scoring streak with three goals scored in those games. He had a three-game point streak between October 24th and October 30th with three goals and four assists, as the RiverKings were 2-1-0 in those three contests. Held is the only RiverKings averaging more than one point a game going into tonight's meeting with the Mudbugs.

PIERCE HAS BIG NIGHT

RiverKings' forward Matt Pierce had his best offensive effort of the season Tuesday night in the Tulsa contest, scoring a goal and adding two assists for a three-point performance. Pierce now has a two-game point streak of four points (one goal, three assists). The Arnpior, Ontario native last year scored 15 goals and had 21 assists for 36 points in 62 games. He had one three-point effort last season, with three assists coming against Wichita on December 23rd, 2008.

LANDMESSER NEARS ANOTHER MILESTONE

RiverKings' defenseman Derek Landmesser earned a pair of assists in Tuesday's game against Tulsa. The helpers give the Thunder Bay, Ontario native 397 career assists in the Central Hockey League. The ninth-year CHL veteran is now within three assists of becoming just the tenth CHL player to reach 400 career assists.

SEVERSON NETS ONE

RiverKings forward Cam Severson scored the team's third shorthanded goal in Tuesday's game against Tulsa, giving him five goals and nine points through 12 contests. The Canora, Saskatchewan native is in the midst of a two-game point streak with three points (goal, two assists). Earlier this season, Severson had a two-game point streak of four points (two goals, two assists) between October 25th and 30th.

ALSO STREAKING....

Louis Dumont: 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) in two straight games.

Ryan Campbell: 3 points (3 assists) in two straight games.

Bobby Chaumont: 2 points (1 goal, 1 assist) in two straight games.

OF NOTE....

The RiverKings played last weekend's games in Rapid City and Tuesday night's loss to Tulsa without coach Kevin Kaminski, who was called away late Thursday on a family emergency.

RiverKings defenseman Andrew Lackner, currently on the injured reserve list, served as bench "coach" for the three games. He also was the bench "coach" the previous Tuesday, November 3rd when the RiverKings defeated Texas in a 2-1 shootout.

Lackner was coach for that game as Kaminski was serving a one-game suspension for a game misconduct received in the October 31st loss to Bossier-Shreveport.

Lackner is now 2-2-0 in his "bench coaching" career.

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Central Hockey League Stories from November 12, 2009


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